Symbol and NEM — The Enterprise-Grade Hybrid Blockchain solution
Welcome the Hybrid Blockchain solution where Symbol Platform and the NEM public network (NIS1) work seamlessly to deliver solutions to Enterprise challenges
In 2019, I published my book “Commercializing Blockchain: Strategic Applications in the Real World” which gathers together thirteen global thought leaders, discussing the world of Blockchain technology, but mainly focussing on Enterprise Adoption.
Extract from the Commercializing Blockchain:
“…… the real adoption of Blockchain technology will be through large business and government organizations — organizations which process millions of transactions will be the biggest beneficiaries of Blockchain technology”
Characteristics of Enterprise Blockchain
There are a number of key characteristics of an enterprise Blockchain organization:
- Global — organizations which span different countries and often span the entire globe.
- Scalable — these organizations require solutions that scale to their needs which often involve millions of transactions.
- Secure — these organizations often deal with large volumes of private data related to people and property.
- Speed — these organizations work at speed, and they often need to process their transactions at speed and with accuracy.
Hybrid Blockchain solutions for Enterprise
We are now in 2020, and the world of Enterprise Blockchain has developed and grown significantly. The characteristics of the enterprise requirements are the same, but we have more developed Public Blockchain networks and they have become much more useful for Enterprise solutions.
This is where Hybrid Blockchain solutions are now critical — a mix of Public and Private/Permissioned Blockchain networks are required for most Enterprise Blockchain challenges. Hybrid is required because of the characteristics I outlined earlier and the most important being: The scale required for an Enterprise to operate, simply, securely and at speed
Private/Permissioned Blockchain solutions have challenges with scale and complexity. They are excellent for lower volume, complex transactions, but for most Enterprise Blockchain challenges, you require all four characteristics.
Ernst & Young have been a massive supporter of Public Blockchains and they have made significant progress, by using the Public Blockchain with some permissioning (For example with ZKP’s) and this has become a Hybrid approach to Enterprise Blockchain solutions
See the excellent Forbes article for more on the EY Blockchain Solutions:
Next-Generation Hybrid Blockchain solutions for Enterprise
I want to now look at the next generation of Enterprise Blockchain solutions and look at the work from the NEM team.
The team has taken their expertise from their launch in 2015, to redefine what a Blockchain network looks like for the next generations. They are launching the Symbol Platform and the NEM public network (NIS1), which will work seamlessly to deliver solutions to Enterprise challenges.
Looking in more detail at the Symbol platform which launches later in 2020:
“Symbol is the trusted, secure value exchange network for business. Symbol smooths business friction, increasing the flow of data and innovation to supercharge the creation, exchange, and protection of assets.”
The Symbol Platform from NEM for Enterprise
The possibilities for Enterprise customers to use the Next Gen Blockchains are exciting: From small transactions in a peer to peer International payments, to the tracking of valuables, to prove the authenticity of artworks, to delivering the platform for CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies), to managing property records, to tracking medical history, to maintaining an enterprise ledger — Symbol is powerful, and yet simple enough, to deliver all these solutions plus many more.
The Symbol Platform seeks to add value to Enterprise customers’ globally, by showing them where and how to implement Permissioned and Public second generation Blockchain solutions, using Symbol and, its public chain sister, NIS1.
The importance of the solution is eloquently explained on the symbol homepage:
Feature-rich development platform that lets you focus on what really matters
Increased Security: Symbol comes with built-in safety features that take the worry away. Our contract plug-in framework makes Symbol more resilient to human error and network attacks.
Enhanced Interoperability: Symbol is interoperable to fit around you. Our APIs ensure seamless integration with existing enterprise systems and processes, as well as other networks and blockchains.
Faster & More Efficient: Symbol speed and efficiency is unmatched. Our tiered architecture and plug-in solutions improve flexibility, speed up processing and development time, and lowering costs.
Why is the Symbol Platform good for Enterprise?
The answer here is the simplicity of the solution, where the NEM teams have used the last five years plus, to learn from the current public network, whilst talking to enterprise customer’s as to what they really need now in an Enterprise Blockchain solution
In my view, the Symbol and NIS1 solution is THE Enterprise Blockchain solution, as it is designed for Enterprise and delivers the following:
“Simple Programming language and Simple integrations into existing Enterprise systems using API’s, together with latest cryptographic security and multi signatory access”
Detailed key features of the Symbol Platform:
- Plug-In’s — Our contract framework makes Symbol more resilient to human error and network attacks. This provides flexibility and removes complexity, speeding up development, and onboarding time.
- Restrictions — Tokens and other assets can easily be restricted from being sent to or from any account that meets configurable criteria, including holding other specified assets. This lets you easily create regulatory-compliant assets, IDs, and non-transferable votes.
- Hybrid Chain Solutions — Symbol has native compatibility with both private and public chains. Designed for interoperability, users can preserve a permissioned ecosystem in a private chain and communicate freely with the public chain as a decentralized hub of data.
- Decentralization — The Symbol public chain is a fully decentralized distributed ledger, using a harvesting mechanism, token rewards, and an improved Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus to keep nodes actively supporting the network. All of the Symbol code is fully open-source and transparent.
- Encrypted Messaging — Easily add an encrypted message to any transaction on a public or private chain. Although the transaction will be visible to any observers, the content will be protected with the same hashing that secures the blockchain, and may only be read with the recipient’s signature.
- Multi-Level Multi-Sig — Users will be able to create multi-level, multi-signature accounts (max 3 levels) which allows more complex account setups and to add an “and/or” logic to multi-sig transactions.
- APIs — Our APIs ensure seamless integration with existing enterprise systems and processes, as well as other networks and blockchains.
- Aggregate Transactions — Our platform merges multiple transactions into one by generating a single-use, disposable smart contract. The merging of transactions allows for trustless swaps, escrowed transactions, and other advanced logic.
- Metadata controls — Built-in controls on Symbol make it possible to attach relevant information to accounts, mosaics, or namespaces. It will enable further off-chain actions that depend on metadata.
- Mosaics — Fungible fixed assets are represented with mosaics. A mosaic could be a token, or a collection of more specialized assets such as reward points, shares, signatures, status flags, votes or even currencies.
It is a truly transformational time for Blockchain technology, and Enterprise adoption is critical to the success of this. I truly believe the Hybrid Blockchain solution is the best solution for all enterprise, combining the best of a public Blockchain with the best of the private blockchain.
“Next Gen Enterprise Blockchain solutions are here and ready to revolutionise the world as we know it”
About The Author:
Antony Welfare is one of the world’s leading experts on enterprise blockchain technology. Antony is author of the books Commercializing Blockchain (Wiley, 2019) and The Retail Handbook (Rethink Press, 2018).
https://twitter.com/AntonyWelfare
Download Chapter One of Commercializing Blockchain for free:
